Giorgi Sardalashvili defeats Yang in lightweight final

In the U60kg category at the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi, Yung Wei Yang is the number one in the ranking, Olympic silver medallist who recently won world bronze. Yang reached the final but the gold medal went to young Giorgi Sardalashvili. In the final he scored a waza-ari and put some pressure on Yang, who is not used to such situations. The Georgian endured and got much more than his first grand slam gold, he got the most important victory of his budding career against the best rival.

In the prelims Yang took the Grand Slam naturally and professionally and reached the quarter-finals without breaking a sweat, with the energy tank completely full. His first really dangerous opponent was Turan Bayramov, a young man from the Azeri school who has been standing out with an offensive judo that is a pleasure to see. Bayramov's resistance lasted three minutes, which Yang used to score twice. Beyond the waza-ari, what caught our attention was the speed, the swiftness. Yang is in Olympic form and he wants it to be known; on to the semi-finals.

Bronze for Aghayev

Azerbaijan secured the first bronze with the duel between compatriots. Aghayev won because he scored waza-ari and because Bayramov hurt himself and was in shock for several seconds. He recovered and improved, even endangering his rival but it was insufficient. For the rest, same haircut, same beard, same school and good judo. Surely we will see these two again in Baku.

Bronze for Yildiz

The Turkish Yildiz had to get past the Georgian Nozadze to get the second bronze. The number 50 in the ranking against the 8 is a priori, an unbalanced fight, but Yildiz fought without complexes, which is the best he could do. Nozadzde was punished with two shido, which served as a shock to bring out what he has inside but the Turk did not lose concentration and executed a beautiful technique for a waza-ari that put the Georgian against the ropes. Nozadze was so rushed that Yildiz had no problem scoring a second waza-ari, the easiest of his career because he had done the hardest part just before.

The semi-finalists were therefore the Georgian Giorgi Sardalashvili and Azerbaijani Balabay Aghayev, whose judo is like that of his compatriot Bayramov.

Prelims

Of all the athletes present in Abu Dhabi, the one who surprised the most, and that is also excellent news, was the Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav, who elegantly eliminated the German Maximilian Standke and earned a place in the quarter-finals against the Dutchman Tornike Tsjakadoea. With all said and done, Yadav did not make the trip in vain and that is the beauty of judo, when emerging countries in this sport take a step forward and we hope it will be forever. Nikoloz agrees but one thing is to dream and another is the reality and with open eyes there is always a Georgian to spoil a sweet dream. Temur Nozadze delivered a devastating ippon against Yadav and entered the semi-finals against Yang. In any case the Indian would fight in the repechage and with his seventh place the tournament has been a success.